UPCOMING EVENTS

I apologize in advance if this sounds more like a review, but some features need mentioning.

By now Fallout: New Vegas is on store shelves and on the Christmas/Hanukkah/Winter Solstice wishlists for numerous gamers, myself included. The only reason I have knowledge about the game is because I borrowed a copy from a friend. Hey, I don't want to start off in the Mojave Wasteland on Chirstmas Day with nothing but a bullet in my head!

However, in the comments pages of forums and websites like Kotaku and Joystiq there is a call to postpone or outright refuse to play the game because of New Vegas' notoriously buggy nature. I won't sugercoat it, the game can be buggier than Ohio July through August. I've had the game freeze on me during the most inopportune times, usually during the start or finale of a quest. Graphical muck-ups are aplenty, you can fall through the game world, and getting stuck in rocks is a frsutratign experience. Such errors are simply unacceptable in our modern age of gaming, especially since Fallout 3 had such issues two years ago which left plenty of time to iron out the kinks of Bethesda's engine.

And yet, here I am about 20 hours into the game and I still have so much left to do before I can even say I'm halfway done with the whole thing. Thus far I've explored around 50 of the 125 locations in the Mojave Wasteland, an Achievement or Trophy by the way, made camps of Caeser's Legionnaries pay for their crimes, gone on a virtual safari of the irradiated monstrosities in the desert, meet intresting characters like a horrible Ghoul stand-up comedian and a seemingly omnipresent and friendly robot named Victor. The sheer number of quests I still have to do is mindboggingly insane, it seems everytime I get nearer and nearer to the actual city of New Vegas, that's right I have yet to venture into the game;s namesake a newpops up and I do a full 180 and go back into the Mojave. The Mojave is such a cruel mistress.

To summarize, the game has so much to see, do, collect, and kill. Even with all of this in mind, gamer's complain that the glitches of New Vegas will keep them from taking a stroll though the Mojave Wasteland. Don't get me wrong, those are valid complaints and Bethesda and Obsidian should keep that mind mind with future projects, Skyrim for Bethesda especially. However, those staying on the sidelines are missing one of the better experiences in gaming for 2010 and the only person their hurting is themselves. No self-respecting Fallout fan should miss this title. No wait, no self-respecting gamer should is this game.

Besides, a new timed exclusive DLC for the Xbox 360 called "Dead Money" is available. It looks like it offers a Saw-style perspective to Fallout in which you and three other denizens of the Mojave Wasteland are equipped with explosive collars set to expldoe if any of you fail to reclaim the treasure of the Sierra Madre casino.

With so much content, and more in the future, why wouldn't you go all in for the longhaul in New Vegas?